Washington, DC – Below is a column by Maribel Hastings from America’s Voice en Español translated to English from Spanish. It ran in several Spanish-language media outlets earlier this week:
After the 2016 presidential election fiasco—when pollsters predicted a victory for Democrat Hillary Clinton over Republican Donald Trump, and the opposite happened—the polling industry was left in a very poor light, and extreme caution has prevailed ever since when it comes to predicting results.
But in this midterm election, most pollsters seem to agree that several factors have aligned to favor Democrats gaining control of one or both chambers of Congress. The question is rather whether it will be by narrow margins or whether, in fact, a blue wave will sweep the Republicans aside.
In less than a week—and if everything proceeds as normal—we’ll know whether voters’ discontent, frustration, and anger over the impact Donald Trump’s policies have had on their wallets and their lives will indeed result in a change of leadership in Congress for the final two years of the Republican presidency.
Various media outlets report a spontaneous mobilization of voters, with family members and friends encouraging one another to vote early or cast their ballots in person.
And this is especially true among Latinos, who have not only seen their finances affected but have also become direct and indirect victims of Trump’s violent detention and deportation machine. Many Latino voters are part of families with mixed immigration statuses, and some family members have been detained, deported, or are simply targets of racial profiling by immigration agents. Not to mention those whose relatives have died at the hands of ICE agents.
In fact, Latino voters helped propel Trump to the presidency in 2024. An estimated 43% of Hispanic voters cast their ballots for Trump in that election, compared with 35% in the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
But what followed was a real wake-up call, as his war in Iran and his tariff war—even against allied countries—have driven up the price of everything, including food, gas, and other goods and services. At the same time, Trump has pushed for cuts to medical and food assistance programs, which have also affected citizens and legal residents.
That detention and deportation machine is supposed to target “criminals,” but it has focused on workers with no criminal history—many of whom have lived here for decades. Many families have lost providers and jobs, leading to an economic and humanitarian crisis.
And it is this cruelty and violence that seem to have brought about a shift in perspective among Latinos and among many American voters in general, especially independents.
In Arizona, the AP interviewed Sandra Ramírez, a Latina who regrets having voted for Trump in 2024 after seeing the effects of his immigration policy on this community. “There are a lot of people who are being harassed for the color of their skin, and that’s not right. I’ll never go Republican again,” she said.
“Albert Rodriguez, a Phoenix tattoo artist, said he once supported Trump. But then he saw how the administration was carrying out enforcement operations in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles. He said the president promised to go after immigrants who were criminals, but instead Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been ‘hitting the paleta man,’ referring to ordinary people trying to make a living from selling frozen treats,” AP wrote. “Big time, I regret it,” Rodriguez said of his 2024 vote for Trump.
So if one thing is clear—and the polls confirm it—it is that the immigration issue that helped Trump and the Republicans so much in the 2024 election has become a major problem for them in 2026 due to the violence, cruelty, and impunity that characterize their operations.
In poll after poll, Americans say that immigration policy has gone too far.
And as if the cruelty weren’t enough, deportations hit every American in the pocketbook, since the loss of immigrant labor in key sectors of our economy—such as agriculture and construction—means that the prices of goods and services rise, turning into an “ICE tax” that affects us all.
The solution remains a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants. If the elections bring a change in Congress’s leadership, perhaps the groundwork can be laid to refine the strategy for advancing the elusive immigration reform that has gone unfulfilled for decades.
The original Spanish version is here.
